I just got done watching benjamin button. It was a really good movie all around with some of the best make up and special effects I've seen in a movie especially with Brad Pitt during his early aka old years.

I saw that movie and did you not feel like you were watching Forrest Gump all over again?

__________________When life gives you paper jams, turn them into paper footballs!

Zombies are the new Vampires. I went to the book store the other day and there like 100 new books about zombies. I bought one called Patient Zero - looks like it's sort of a cross between 24 and Night of the Living Dead but I haven't started it yet.

I saw that movie and did you not feel like you were watching Forrest Gump all over again?

After looking back I guess yeah it did, but I don't know, there was something about the movie and premise that got to me more than Gump did.

As far as Transformers 2 goes, action wise it takes a giant dump on the first one and I loved the first one. This felt like the cartoon totally come to life and it was awesome from begining to end with only one real part where it kinda dragged a bit. And suprisingly it was funny as hell 2. I'm going to see it again Saturday. Oh and IMAX is the only way to appreciate this movie's action scenes properly.

(I have seen the film in both 35mm and in IMAX. I had heard before seeing the film in IMAX that there would be additional scenes but I did not see anything different at all. The only difference were that 2 of the key action scenes were shot on IMAX film; meaning they took up the entire screen. Those scenes are the only thing worth seeing in this film).

Visually, the film is beautiful, but as a huge fan of the first film, I was thoroughly disappointed with the overall structure, pacing, script and experience. I don't think I have seen a film this unstructured in my entire life. There was no tension whatsoever throughout the entire film. It felt like Michael Bay shot everything, threw it all into a blender and then dumped it out onto the screen. Bay has always been criticized for only being a director when it comes to explosions and action. People think that he can't direct a decent story or decent acting. Well, I have always been the one to back him up but after seeing this film, I honestly cannot defend him this time. All of Bay's flaws became apparent in this latest film where the pacing and structure were just atrocious. The film clocks in at close to 2 hours and 30 minutes long and it feels like it goes on forever. When I discuss the structure of the film, it is kind of hard to express exactly what I feel. I guess I can say it is a very unsatisfying film because, at least for me, people are expecting so much.

Bay, who has directed some of the better action films of the 90's and early 2000's, has obviously become a little full of himself. He started off so strong with films like Bad Boys, The Rock, Armageddon and then he hit his peak in 2007 with Transformers. That film had, easily, some of the best special effects ever seen on screen. Never before had I seen such flawless interactions between a CGI character and a real human actor. I was talking to a friend of mine today about how special those effects were. Now that we have seen them, what did Bay need to do in order to top the first flick? Well, whatever he did with this movie was not the answer. Those effects were already done so he almost needed to build a better story arc this time. He relied too much on the effects and action, which we have already seen, and that hurt the overall film.

The entire cast is pretty much back including Shia LaBeouf (Disturbia), Megan Fox, Hugo Weaving (Mr. Smith from The Matrix), Josh Duhamel (Win a Date with Todd Hamilton), John Turturro (The Big Lebowski),Peter Cullen (voices Optimus Prime), Tyrese Gibson (2 Fast 2 Furious) and one of the best stars of the film; Julie White (she plays Shia's mother in the film).

The first and second film both deal with pretty much the exact same story. The Autobots are trying to save the earth, while the Decepticons are trying to destroy it. In the words of Vincent Coccotti (Walken from True Romance), "In case you are in the dark on this, let me shed some light." In the first film, we learned of a cube called the "Allspark," which has the potential to create worlds and transformers. Anyone who has control over this can rule the universe. We learn in the first film that high school senior Sam Witwicky (LaBeouf) has a secret pair of glasses that contain the locaton of the "Allspark." His great Grandfather came across the Allspark many years ago and the location was ingrained in his glasses, which now belong to Sam. The first film deals with the Autobots going to Sam to retrieve the glasses and the Allspark before the Decepticons get a hold of it. For people who do not know, Optimus Prime is the leader of the Autobots and Megatron is the leader of the Decepticons. The end of the first film ended in a street battle between the Autobots and Decepticons. They were fighting over the Allspark which ended in the deathof Megatron. Sam saved Optimus Prime's life and the destroyed the Allspark. Or, we thought! (Insert scary music with don don don!!)

In the second film, we pretty much have the same story, but this time around, it is two years later. The Autobots have now formed an alliance with the U.S. Government and are currently fighting remaining Decepticons that are left on the planet. Sam is now going off to college and his beautiful girlfriend, Mikaela (Megan Fox) is staying behind. They will be dealing with a long distance relationship. Right before he leaves for school, he finds a piece of the Allspark in his old shirt from the first film. When he touches this, he is immediately affected and starts seeing odd symbols in his head. The Decepticons get word of this and realize that Sam can lead them to a secret location that contains an object which can completely destroy earth. All Sam wants is a normal college life but the Autobots come to him asking for help to save Earth. The leader of the Decepticons is now a transformer called "The Fallen" and he wants earth destroyed. They are able to hack a U.S. Army Satellite to get information on the whereabouts of Megatron's body, in order to bring him back to life. We are now lead back into a battle between the Autobots and the Decepticons with Sam Witwicky directly in the middle.

The film's biggest problems lay within the editing and script. When you have a film that is two hours and 30 minutes long, you need to engage your audience. All Michael Bay did with this movie was create an up and down pattern. Here is the pattern of the movie; Action scene, love scene, action scene, love scene, action scene, love scene. The film did not flow right at all and felt very anti-climatic. I felt nothing for the characters and could care less where the ending was headed. You may be saying to yourself, "It's an action movie, who cares?" Well, yes, you are right. The first film was perfect with great action, funny dialogue and a decent story. This one relies to heavy on the action we have already seen and it becomes over saturated.

The first film at least had a decent story line and built enough tension throughout, that you were engaged and wondering what was going to happen next. I was so blown away by the first movie because of the special effects and overall mind blowing experience. This sequel completely lacks everything that made the first movie so memorable. Bay over saturates you with special effects and bad jokes. After a while, the action scenes and special effects became meaningless and boring. Don't get me wrong, there were some decent action scenes that will leave you with your mouth wide open but they are very few and far between. There was a sound that would continue to play throughout the movie that essentially played at every cut of the movie. I can't describe the sound but it was a sound that should only be played every once in a while to create tension.

It truly saddens me to say that this film was not up to par with the first and is not worth your money. The visuals are stunning at times, but overall, we are inundated with terrible dialogue and awful characters, specifically Mud Flap and Skids. These are two transformers who follow Shia and Mikaela around but they extremely racist and extremely annoying. Considering they are in around 60% of the film, they were a huge problem. I have heard people already referring to them as the Jar Jar Binks of "Transformers."

This film receives 2.5 BDK's. Go rent the first one. You are guaranteed to have a better time.

__________________When life gives you paper jams, turn them into paper footballs!

2.5 hours long? No way I would sit through that in the theater. A movie like that should be 2 hours max.

It doesn't feel like 2 &1/2 hours or atleast none of my friends and I thought so.

In general IMHO this movie is an awesome popcorn flick. People looking for a great story and acting tied to something based off of a kids cartoon from 20 years ago are barking up the wrong tree with this movie and should know that before going into it. This movie is all about just laughing and enjoying crap blowing up and I for one still enjoy going to the theater for that a couple times a year. That's why I don't even bother with reviews on summer action flicks except from word of mouth from friends, because so many critics go in with weird expectations or are just flat out snobs who've forgotten that movies don't always need to make you think or connect with the characters in order for them to be enjoyable.

It doesn't feel like 2 &1/2 hours or atleast none of my friends and I thought so.

In general IMHO this movie is an awesome popcorn flick. People looking for a great story and acting tied to something based off of a kids cartoon from 20 years ago are barking up the wrong tree with this movie and should know that before going into it. This movie is all about just laughing and enjoying crap blowing up and I for one still enjoy going to the theater for that a couple times a year. That's why I don't even bother with reviews on summer action flicks except from word of mouth from friends, because so many critics go in with weird expectations or are just flat out snobs who've forgotten that movies don't always need to make you think or connect with the characters in order for them to be enjoyable.

That is exactly why I listen to BDK's reviews from the Junkies he is just a normal guy going to the movies not really a critic. All that matters is that you enjoyed it, so good for you. I will wait for the DVD.

__________________When life gives you paper jams, turn them into paper footballs!

I thought the robot chick was much hotter than Megan Fox. Is it just me or does she look like she's wearing huge quantities of makeup in this latest movie? Almost like she had really bad skin or something...

I saw the movie last night, it was definitely mindless summer fun and to be honest, 2.5 hours was probably about .5 to 1 hr too long. Best thing about this movie is how much ass Optimus Prime kicked.